📄Company Profiles Archives - Page 86 of 115

Instacart Startup Story – Delivering Groceries Instantly

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Instacart.

Instacart is a supermarket delivery and pick-up service based in the United States and Canada. A website and a smartphone app are used to provide services. Customers can order groceries from participating stores and have a personal shopper do the shopping for them according to their will. Founded by Apoorva Mehta, Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo in 2012.

The CEO and Co-founder of Instacart, Apoorva Mehta founded 20 businesses in the early 2010s, including a social network for lawyers and an ad network for gaming firms, as part of a surge of entrepreneurial spirit. Mehta developed the method, which targeted his former employer, using his background as an Amazon supply chain engineer.

Know more about the Instacart Startup Story, its business model, revenue, competitors, funding, investors & more in the post ahead.

Instacart – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Instacart
Owner	Maplebear Inc
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, US
Industry	Grocery Delivery, Retail
Founders	Apoorva Mehta, Max Mullen, Brandon Leonardo
Founded	2012
Current CEO	Apoorva Mehta
Revenue	$1.5 billion (2020)
Total Funding	$2.41 billion
Valuation	$39 billion (2021)
Website	instacart.com

About Instacart and How it Works?
Instacart – Recent News
Instacart – Name, Logo and Tagline
Instacart – Founder and History
Instacart – Mission and Vision
Instacart – Partners
Instacart – Business Model and Revenue Model
Instacart – Revenue and Growth
Instacart – Funding and Investors
Instacart – Acquisitions
Instacart – Competitors
Instacart – Challenges Faced
Instacart – Future Plans
Instacart – FAQs

Instacart – Recent News

March 2021 – Instacart, a US grocery delivery service, is considering going public through a direct listing, fearful of missing out on money through a typical initial public offering (IPO).

Instacart will become the latest company to forego an initial public offering (IPO), which has been the primary route to a stock market launch for decades, because it risks selling the offering too low in comparison to where its shares end up trading. A direct listing occurs when a company goes public without first raising funds via a stock sale.

About Instacart and How it Works?

Instacart Inc. is a corporation that provides same-day grocery delivery services. Customers can order groceries from a variety of retailers through an online application portal and have them delivered by personal shoppers. Customers in the United States can use Instacart.

Food and household essentials are sourced from a variety of local stores by the company. Customers can place orders from several stores at once and receive same-day delivery.

In terms of their own implementation, Instacart has a nice app that makes ordering and reordering favorite products easy. Customer service is excellent; they go out of their way to ensure that the customer is satisfied. Instacart has been been refining features/processes for dealing with product substitutions, shopper mistakes, and promoting tipping.

Instacart – Name, Logo and Tagline

Instacart is a same-day grocery delivery service that promises delivery in as little as one hour, or in other words, instantly. The business, which currently focuses on delivering groceries and household essentials, plans to expand into other verticals in the near future.

Instacart Success Story — Instacart logo

Instacart’s slogan, “groceries delivered in an hour,” is all too common in today’s world, which expects everything to be available with a tap on a smartphone.

Instacart – Founder and History

Instacart was founded in 2012 by Apoorva Mehta, a former Amazon.com employee and entrepreneur and his friends, Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo.

Instacart' s Founders — Instacart Founders – **Apoorva Mehta**, **Max Mullen, Brandon Leonardo.**

Apoorva was born in India and immigrated to Canada with his family in the year 2000. He earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2008. He was a part of the Summer 2012 batch of Y Combinator, which contributed to the launch of Instacart.

Instacart began operations in San Francisco. The company had around 200 employees by April 2015. It implemented a new policy in June that allowed certain shoppers to opt to work part-time, beginning with Chicago and Boston and then expanding to Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, D.C. the following month.

Instacart – Mission and Vision

“Our goal is to build a world where everyone has access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together,” says Instacart’s mission statement. Instacart aims to be the service to ‘deliver your groceries within an hour’.

Instacart – Partners

Albertsons, ALDI, Costco, CVS, Kroger, Loblaw, Publix, Sam’s Club, Sprouts, and Wegmans are only a few of the national and regional stores that Instacart works with. Customers love the Instacart marketplace, which has over 300 stores and trusted local grocers.

Instacart – Business Model and Revenue Model

Instacart uses a shared economy-based business model to offer hyper-local on-demand grocery delivery by linking consumers with personal shoppers. Instacart does not own a grocery store; instead, it serves as a marketplace for grocery stores to sell their wares.

Customers can use the mobile app to choose their preferred grocery store, browse through grocery items, add quantity, and confirm their order. The shoppers are self-employed or part-time Instacart employees who obtain the order, shop for the products requested by the customer, and deliver them to their door. Customers pay using the app and receive their goods without having to leave the house.

Instacart makes money from the companies’ distribution and placement fees.

Instacart – Revenue and Growth

Instacart reportedly generated $1.5 billion revenue in 2020, with $35 billion worth of sales
During the coronavirus pandemic, Instacart hit its first profitable month, netting $10 million
Instacart has an estimated 9.6 million active users and over 500,000 shoppers who pick up the items
In March 2021, Instacart was valued at $39 billion

Although Instacart does not release usage figures, in the first half of 2020, it added 300,000 more “shoppers,” or riders who pick up and deliver groceries. It employed fewer than 100,000 people at the end of 2019. With $35 billion in grocery sales in 2020, it will employ 350,000 more people.

Instacart – Funding and Investors

Instacart has raised a total funding of approximately $2.41 Billion from investors like Tiger Global Management, DST Global, Sequoia Capital, Coatue among others.

As of March 2021, Instacart is considering going public through a direct listing, fearful of missing out on money through a typical initial public offering (IPO).

Here is the Instacart Funding details –

Date	Round	Amount	Lead Investors
Mar 2, 2021	Venture Round	$265M	Andreessen Horowitz, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Sequoia Capital, T. Rowe Price
Oct 8, 2020	Venture Round	$200M	D1 Capital Partners, Valiant Peregrine Fund
Jul 3, 2020	Private Equity Round	$100M	T. Rowe Price
Jun 11, 2020	Venture Round	$225M	DST Global, General Catalyst
Nov 15, 2018	Series F	$271M	Tiger Global Management
Oct 16, 2018	Series F	$600M	D1 Capital Partners
Apr 5, 2018	Series E	$150M	Coatue
Feb 12, 2018	Series E	$200M	Coatue
Mar 8, 2017	Series D	$400M	Sequoia Capital
Mar 10, 2016	Funding Round	—	Whole Foods Market

Instacart – Acquisitions

Instacart has acquired 3 companies to date which are – MightySignal, Unata and Wedding Party. The deal amount of the transactions were undisclosed.

Instacart’s Acquisitions details are as follows-

Acquiree Name	About Acquiree	Date
MightySignal	A mobile application index that enables businesses to make sense of data patterns generated by mobile app companies.	Nov 5, 2018
Unata	A platform that provides Omni-commerce for retailers, connecting digital touchpoints to personalize shoppers’ experiences.	Jan 16, 2018
Wedding Party	An app that collects wedding photos from guests and provides updates on the wedding details.	Aug 4, 2015

Instacart – Competitors

Amazon Fresh (which uses the Webvan model), Google Shopping Express, and others are competitors (non-perishable items at the moment). Amazon and Google are also well-known brands with deep pockets. Uber Rush may be able to penetrate this market. Uber Eats, Munchery, Blue Apron, Plated, and Hello Fresh are all meal delivery services that compete with Instacart.

Instacart – Challenges Faced

Dependencies on grocery store participation
Fierce competitors
Process standardization

Instacart – Future Plans

Instacart is making several big improvements to its business model as part of its plan to help grocers own the digital food future. As part of its effort to boost grocery e-commerce for its retailer partners, the organization is investing its capital in a variety of new ways.

Investing in helping retailers achieve greater operational efficiencies through e-commerce, enhancing customer service, and further scaling its technological teams to better meet the increased customer demand for food delivery and pickup are just a few of them.

The business believes the industry should concentrate on delighting consumers, and that aim was a guiding principle when it increased its customer service team from 1,200 to 18,000 agents early in the pandemic. Late deliveries, missing products, incorrect item substitutions, and out-of-stocks are common complaints among grocery e-commerce customers which the company has taken care of.

Instacart – FAQs

What does Instacart do?

Instacart Inc. is a corporation that provides same-day grocery delivery services based in the United States.

Who founded Instacart?

Instacart was founded in 2012 by Apoorva Mehta, a former Amazon.com employee and entrepreneur.

What companies do Instacart compete with?

Amazon Fresh (which uses the Webvan model), Google Shopping Express, and others are competitors (non-perishable items at the moment). Amazon and Google are also well-known brands with deep pockets. Uber Rush may be able to penetrate this market.

How does Instacart make money?

Instacart uses a shared economy-based business model to offer hyper-local on-demand grocery delivery by linking consumers with personal shoppers. Instacart does not own a grocery store; instead, it serves as a marketplace for grocery stores to sell their wares.

May 16, 2021

Vieroots – Personalise Nutrition According to Your Genetics!

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Vieroots Wellness Solutions.

Vieroots envisions a world where people are empowered to live healthy, long and fulfilling lives by taking charge of their own body and mind by adopting holistic wellness concepts that converge modern healthcare research with ancient wellness wisdom.

Founded by Aditya Narayan (CEO), Mr Sajeev Nair (Chairman) and Sajeev VP (COO), Vieroots has a core product named EPLIMO (Personalized Epigenetic Lifestyle Modifications) – an AI powered Smartphone app for iOS and Android

StartupTalky interviewed Aditya Narayan (Co-Founder & CEO, Vieroots) to understand the success story of Vieroots and Ideation of startup along with getting a glance on Vieroots Business model, funding, growth, startup challenges and more…

Vieroots – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Vieroots Wellness Solutions
Founders	Aditya Narayan (CEO), Mr Sajeev Nair (Chairman), Sajeev VP (COO)
Sector	Healthcare
Headquarter	Kochi
Valuation	INR 100 Crores (2021)
Website	vieroots.com

Let’s go through the Amazing Journey of Vieroots –

Vieroots – About and Mission
Vieroots – Product and USP
How Vieroots Product (EPLIMO) works?
Vieroots – Founders and Team
Vieroots – Industry and Target Market
Vieroots – Startup Idea
Vieroots – Startup Challenges and Strategies
Vieroots – Customer Acquisition and Startup Launch
Vieroots – Name Meaning and Logo
Vieroots – Business Model and Revenue Model
Vieroots – Growth and Marketing
Vieroots – Funding and Valuation
Vieroots – Advisors and Mentors
Vieroots – Acquisition
Vieroots – Recognition and Achievement
Vieroots – Future Plans
Vieroots – FAQs

Vieroots – About and Mission

Vieroots’ core product is an Artificial Intelligence powered smartphone app for iOS and Android, called EPLIMO, which stands for Personalized Epigenetic Lifestyle Modifications.

Vieroots’ mission is to help people to ‘Live Longer and Stay Younger’ by providing personalized holistic lifestyle modifications which are scientific and evidence-based for enhancing the physical and mental wellbeing and peak performance.

Vieroots – Product and USP

The USP of Vieroots is its core product – Artificial Intelligence powered smartphone app for iOs and Android, called EPLIMO, which stands for Personalized Epigenetic Lifestyle Modifications. Since nobody else does this in India, and only a handful of players are there in this field worldwide, Vieroots claims this as their major USP (Unique Selling Proposition).

EPLIMO is a potential disruptor in the wellness space. No other genetic testing companies provide personalized nutrition or lifestyle modifications post their genetic test. But genetic test carries the greatest value, as all are unique, not just in physical appearance and thought processes, but in genetic and metabolic profiles.

Genetic profile is the genetic data stored in DNA and metabolic profile shows how food gets converted into energy and the building blocks for cells inside one’s body. No two persons have the same geno-metabolic profiles. Hence nutrition for someone could even be toxin for someone else. Also, while cardio exercise strengthens someone’s heart, the same can damage the heart muscles of someone else. Jumping into some diet plans or enrolling for some fitness programs without knowing our geno-metabolic profile can cause more damages than benefit. Therefore, Personalized Lifestyle Modifications is the holistic solution.

“Personalized diet plans, personalized fitness plans and even personalized yoga and meditation based on the geno-metabolic analysis is the way to go” – Says Aditya Narayan, Co-founder & CEO, Vieroots.

How Vieroots Product (EPLIMO) works?

Vieroots Geno-metabolic assessment comprises of one of the most comprehensive genetic tests combined with a detailed metabolic assessment; all at the convenience of one’s home.

Vieroots highly advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled mobile app EPLIMO generates a detailed Geno-Metabolic report. Vieroots medical and genetic experts create highly personalized lifestyle modifications for each customer, based on their genetics and metabolism. And thus, people will know which food will work for them and the ones which will work against them, the exercises which they need to avoid and the ones which they can adopt, which type of yoga can provide them maximum health benefits etc.

The EPLIMO app and its suggested lifestyle modifications can enhance the overall quality of life and support each person to live long and stay young, physically and mentally. Vieroots is always adding new features to EPLIMO app and are also broadening their portfolio of nutritional supplements.

Vieroots – Founders and Team

Aditya Narayan (CEO), Mr Sajeev Nair (Chairman), Sajeev VP (COO) are the Co-founders of Vieroots.

Vieroots founder, CEO — Aditya Narayan, Cofounder & CEO, Vieroots

Vieroots hiring funda is – “The best fit for each role.”

However, being in a niche and advanced domain, they have special requirements, like for example, even the customer interaction executives will often be from a biotechnology or genetics background. Vieroots has an inhouse team of 25 professionals at the moment and around 1000 business associates all across the country.

Vieroots – Industry and Target Market

Vieroots Co-Founder & Chairman Mr Sajeev Nair has for long been a wellness evangelist, biohacker and serial entrepreneur. From initial days of planning itself, they had inducted into the team – professionals including doctors, geneticists, healthcare researchers, Ayurvedic specialists, dieticians, fitness experts etc., Hence, industry knowledge has always been with Vieroots, and in fact they are pushing radical innovation in the wellness industry.

Vieroots target market – Age group of 30 to 50 years from the upper middle-class segment. This was decided based on the necessary wellness awareness as well as product affordability.

Vieroots – Startup Idea

Vieroots co-founders realized that there are 1000s of wellness firms in India that produces a diverse range of nutritional supplements. However, choosing the right supplement is always a challenge. They didn’t see any uniqueness in such firms. All of them are more or less doing the same thing. That is how Vieroots cofounders realized there is a gap in the market which if serviced can turn out to be an amazing innovation and opportunity for Vieroots.

They tried to analyze the exact specifics of the gap in the market, and in that process, it was found that the most lacking concept here was personalized lifestyle modifications, which is something that is emerging strongly in the Western world.

Aditya has been following personalized lifestyle modifications ever since he had his first genetic predisposition test in the US in 2004. In India, at that time, genetic testing and lifestyle modifications based on such a test was rare and unaffordable. However, things have changed now, and there are 4 to 5 significant players in genetic testing but their service is restricted to the test and the report, and nothing much further. For most customers, a genetic test report is of no use unless he or she consults an expert to analyze and give a clear observation. A genetic test can reveal genetic predispositions to hundreds of diseases and scientifically validated personalized lifestyle modifications for such predispositions can lower the risk significantly. Nobody was providing such a service and this was the gap that Vieroots filled up.

Vieroots – Startup Challenges and Strategies

Initial communications strategy of Vieroots didn’t work as expected. Vieroots stressed on the genetic testing part, instead of the lifestyle modifications part.

But when the team interacted with initial customers at a deeper level, it was realized that they were more pulled in by the unique personalized lifestyle modifications that Vieroots provided, and not by the genetic testing which other firms too were delivering. Hence, subsequent communications focused on the personalized lifestyle modifications or the EPLIMO app and it clicked big time.

Another strategy that worked on the sales side was the deployment of Vieroots’ Work-From-Home platform, WOHO. Another breakthrough happened naturally as the first batches of customers went through the EPLIMO process itself after buying. The idea became very beneficial and convincing for all and even for the doctors. One big challenge Vieroots faced was educating everyone about this concept and how this would be the future of wellness. Fortunately, with a clear set of communication tools, Vieroots didn’t have to take much support from any external medium to spread the word in these initial stages. It was all possible through word of mouth publicity.

Vieroots – Customer Acquisition and Startup Launch

The team started planning for Vieroots much before the pandemic hit. But the actual launch happened just after the lockdown ended.

During Vieroots test marketing phase which lasted for about two years, the team spoke to their industry contacts, associates and friends all across the country, and spread awareness about this concept and then conducted the genetic predisposition test for around 700 -800 people from few selected regions like Kerala, Bangalore, Northeast and Gujarat. This was Vieroots’ prototype and the response was really good. The initial publicity was only by word of mouth.

After the test marketing phase, Vieroots went for a soft launch using all social media platforms. Since the Chairman of Vieroots (Mr Sajeev Nair) has been in the wellness industry for almost two decades, Vieroots had a great advantage of networking all across the country. Hence, Vieroots got a good response for the soft launch, they did not have to promote it through media at this initial stage.

Vieroots – Name Meaning and Logo

Deciding on Vieroots brand identity was spontaneous. For the name, the team wanted a mix of English and a foreign language.

Vieroots Logo

So, Vie is the French word for “Life” and Roots come naturally as it suggests – Roots of Life. Drawing deep into the roots of life for a better future, is at the core of what Vieroots does. Their brand identity design depicts the colors of the genetic barcode.

Vieroots – Business Model and Revenue Model

The that runs completely on a B2C digital platform. Passionate wellness experts and business enthusiasts as well as health and wellness centers associate with Vieroots to promote and sell its products through a highly efficient and content-rich Work-From-Home platform called WOHO.

Vieroots – Growth and Marketing

In the first two months itself it was able to achieve close to one crore in sales. It operates pan India through digital channels.

Attracting Bollywood superstar Mr. Suniel Shetty on board as an equity partner was a breakthrough for Vieroots. He is not only a renowned fitness enthusiast, but a successful serial entrepreneur and startup investor in the healthcare and fitness sector.

The support of a competent PR team helped in making Vieroots’ presence across all the key Indian cities. Vieroots haven’t yet started any specific marketing campaign. Interviews of Chairman, Mr Sajeev Nair and articles by him have been featured in various print, TV, & digital channels. An interview of him and Suniel Shetty on national television gave Vieroots some remarkable mileage and social media posts had also received surprisingly high response. Now Vieroots is in the process of growth hacking.

Vieroots – Funding and Valuation

The Vieroots valuation is at INR 100 crores (2021). Suniel Shetty has come in as an investor with a minor stake.

Vieroots – Advisors and Mentors

Vieroots have renowned experts from the healthcare sector including doctors in its advisory board. The Co-Founder and Chairman Mr Sajeev Nair himself is a highly sought-after mentor and corporate trainer. Suniel Shetty has also been a constant source of support with his timely guidance to Vieroots.

Vieroots – Acquisition

Vieroots hasn’t acquired any other firm or considered anything like that till now. Since they are a unique player in the industry as of now, the team doesn’t foresee any such opportunities, unless they come across some unique synergies in any such potential firms.

Vieroots – Recognition and Achievement

Vieroots’ biggest achievement would be the pioneering status in India in introducing personalized epigenetic lifestyle modifications based on geno-metabolic analysis.

On an Asian and world stage too, Vieroots is one among the few pioneers in this industry. Its association with Mr. Suniel Shetty is worth mentioning. A live interview with Suniel Shetty on CNBC gave Vieroots some publicity, as not many companies in this sector are featured such on a national stage. This was possible only because of the uniqueness of Vieroots’ products and services.

Vieroots – Future Plans

In the first two months itself it was able to achieve close to one crore in sales. Its ultimate aim is to enroll at least 1 crore people to the EPLIMO app and process by 2025.

Vieroots – FAQs

Who are the founders of Vieroots?

Aditya Narayan (CEO), Mr Sajeev Nair (Chairman), VP Sajeev (COO) are the Co-founders of Vieroots.

What is EPLIMO?

Vieroots’ core product is an Artificial Intelligence powered smartphone app for iOs and Android, called EPLIMO, which stands for Personalized Epigenetic Lifestyle Modifications.

How much is Vieroots Valuation?

Vieroots’ valuation is at INR 100 crores (2021).

What does Vieroots name mean?

Vie is the French word for “Life” and Roots come naturally as it suggests – Roots of Life. Drawing deep into the roots of life for a better future is at the core of what Vieroots does.

What is Vieroots USP?

USP of Vieroots is its core product – Artificial Intelligence powered smartphone app for iOs and Android, called EPLIMO, which stands for Personalized Epigenetic Lifestyle Modifications. Since nobody else does this in India, and only a handful of players are there in this field worldwide, Vieroots claim this as their major USP (Unique Selling Proposition).

What is genetic and metabolic profiles?

Genetic profile is the genetic data stored in DNA and metabolic profile shows how food gets converted into energy and the building blocks for cells inside one’s body. No two persons have the same geno-metabolic profiles.

May 16, 2021

CustomerGlu – Visual Game Experience for your app

Offers and Discount are popular ways to get new customers for your business. But many times businesses end up spending a lot on offers and discounts, which brings down their profit margin. Prateek Gupta, Raman Shrivastava and Sumant US came up with a solution to this problem through their startup CustomerGlu. CustomerGlu enables E-Commerce businesses to increase profitability by saving money with dynamic offers that convert more – while reducing the cash burn on discounts. By using AI, CustomerGlu lets the businesses customize the offers based on parameters like customer behavior and customer life-cycle, so that businesses can design beautiful offers to attract customers just within their budget. We interviewed Prateek Gupta, co-founder of CustomerGlu to get an insight into the startup.

CustomerGlu Highlights

Startup Name	CustomerGlu
Headquarter	3260 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304
Founders	Prateek Gupta,Raman Shrivastava, Sumant US
Sector	B2B/AI/Saas
Founded	October 2016
Parent Organization	Marax AI, Inc.
Website	customerglu.com

About CustomerGlu
CustomerGlu – Founders & Team
The Idea Behind Starting CustomerGlu
CustomerGlu – Name & Logo
CustomerGlu – Revenue Model
CustomerGlu – Funding & Investors
CustomerGlu – Challenges
CustomerGlu – Advisors & Mentors
CustomerGlu – Awards & Recognitions
CustomerGlu – Growth
CustomerGlu – Offers
CustomerGlu – FAQs

About CustomerGlu

CustomerGlu helps businesses design customized, attractive and interactive offers for their customers. The aim is to help eCommerce companies with saving money while improving conversions. CustomerGlu does this by:

● Reducing the cost by optimizing business constraints viz budget, discount margin.

● Bringing external data like competitor pricing, seasonality to look at the bigger picture

● Contextualizing the Offers by recommending Products, Brands or Categories from the inventory

● Provide a built-in library of interactive UIs

CustomerGlu Dashboard — CustomerGlu Lets You Design Offers as per Your Budget

If you have a e-commerce business, you can bring your customer incentive strategy to life for a variety of use cases across a customers lifecycle with 4 types of campaigns –

Cart discounts: Reward your users on their cart with all types of discounts like Percentage/amount off on the order/Brand/Category, Free products and Free delivery. Go one step further by optimizing the discounts given to each customer against a Profit Margin or a Budget. This ensures you are converting more users with the least spend.
Product discount recommendations: Give customers the product that they want along with a budget driven discount that drives E-commerce transactions. Show each user a set of personalized products or brands ranked according to their intent to purchase with discounts that are just-enough for them to transact with.
Reward UI programs: Stand-out from the crowd and Increase engagement on your offers by giving your customers scratch cards and spin the wheel to earn a coupon. The variability in winning the reward internally reinforces your customers to transact more in expectation of receiving a reward the next time.
Activity UI programs: Run programs like Collect the Stamp and Challenges that make your customers complete core activities on your platform to earn a huge reward in the form of a Scratch card or coupon on completion. With this type, you can get your current and loyal customers to discover new use cases of the product, sign up for a subscription which eventually compounds the customer lifetime value.

Design customized, attractive and interactive offers with CustomerGlu

We are looking at the more than 1 Trillion+ transactions happening on mobile devices viz shopping, in-app purchases, in-game purchases and mobile web. On an average a company makes 10% margins on every transaction – CustomerGlu can improve this to have multi-billion dollar uplift in net revenues for mobile commerce”

CustomerGlu – Founders & Team

Prateek Gupta, Raman Shrivastava and Sumant US are the founders of CustomerGlu. Prateek and Raman both are graduates from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), while Sumant is an alumnus of SRM University.

Prateek got in touch with Raman to work towards software scalability challenges that Marax was facing back in 2016 through a common connection from their Alma Mater – VIT University, Vellore. Sumant with his keen interest in Product Design, connected with Raman to lead Product at Marax.

CustomerGlu is presently a 9 member team based in Bangalore.

Prateek Gupta is the CEO and leads the business. He earlier founded an IoT Startup Node0 labs and has experience with game design while he was one of the founding members of Creation Labs.

Raman Shrivastava is the AI lead. He earlier founded Fitsome, Inc., which was invested in by Tim Draper, DFJ. He was also awarded as 40 under 40 Data scientists by AnalyticsIndiaMag in 2019. He is also Facebook Private AI Scholar

Sumant US is the Product Lead. He has extensive experience in user retention and product design. He underwent the Reforge program in 2019.

The Idea Behind Starting CustomerGlu

Marax AI started in Oct 2016 with finding the problem statements at the intersection of customer retention and B2C eCommerce. The initial product of Marax AI Inc. was a proprietary AI engine that helped internet first companies solve the problem of customer churn. Marax AI predicted the customers who are at a risk of leaving, reasons why these customers are leaving and recommend actions that businesses need to take to retain the customers.

Over the past 3 years, Marax AI worked with B2C companies like Orahi, Fynd, Nestaway, Petoo to predict when a user is about to churn. One of the key use cases for Churn Prediction was to automate sending Offers that help retain customers.

While working on solving churn for the consumer internet – the Marax team learnt that 80% of marketing actions that companies take to retain their existing customers are offers. Also, deep discounting is a major problem in e-commerce. They felt that much is yet to be done when it comes to designing discounting strategies for businesses, and thus the idea behind starting CustomerGlu was born. CustomerGlu was launched in May 2020.

“If we look at p & l statements for e-commerce companies, the majority of cash is burnt on discounts. We validated the idea while speaking with more than 50 various e-commerce companies, moreover, in 2018 reinforcement learning got a major push from the AI industry. We started thinking about how we might connect data to actions via reinforcement learning and hence the idea behind CustomerGlu started taking shape – while we were working with early adopters like DailyNinja and Rapido.” Prateek says regarding the inception of CustomerGlu.

CustomerGlu – Name & Logo

Marax AI has been working to solve the problem of consumer churn since its inception in 2016, and worked with the early adopters like Dailyninja to prove upto 60% RoI. During this time the team saw that while Offer was a common way to prevent customer churn, many businesses were not being able to get the most out of their offers. This is when Marax Action Recommendation Engine aka Mars was launched. Mars was a cool acronym but it failed to convey the tool’s purpose at a glance. Later the team came up with the name CustomerGlu as it reflected the company’s aim to help businesses to promote long-term user behavior driven by habit formation and thus glue the users to the brand.

CustomerGlu Logo

CustomerGlu – Revenue Model

CustomerGlu charges its customers based on the unique number of end users in a campaign. The team however is planning to switch to a revenue share pricing model where CustomerGlu will take a cut from the money that it save for the businesses.

CustomerGlu – Funding & Investors

CustomerGlu has raised seed fund from Amit Singhal(Former head of Google Search) and SmartStart Fund in 2017. While Marax AI was largely into churn prediction services before, this investment helped the startup to build its current product.

CustomerGlu – Challenges

In applied AI, pure algos don’t work. To make it work for a domain – it needs a strong combination of domain insights and data for the algo to work. The CustomerGlu team had to internally build a Offers Simulation engine to train the models offline before setting them on the online tasks for our customers.

CustomerGlu – Advisors & Mentors

CustomerGlu’s advisors and mentors include –

● Chetan Choudhary, who is also advisor at UAE Prime Minister’s Office.
● Dr Srinivas Padmanabhuni, Co-Founder and CTO at CityMandi, Chief Mentor at Tarah Technologies.
● PK Gulati, Chairman Emeritus and Founder at TiE Dubai Chapter.

CustomerGlu – Awards & Recognitions

● Recognized as Emerging Analytics Startup consecutively twice in a row for 2019 and 2020
● One of the Top 25 Stars of Startup-O ‘Fasttrack
● Raman was awarded with 40 under 40 data scientists by AnalyticsIndiaMag in 2019.
● Poster on Hidden Technical Debt in Churn Prediction was accepted for presentation at Montreal AI Symposium in 2017.

CustomerGlu – Growth

Since its launch in May 2020, CustomerGlu team has worked with a curated set of early adopters like GOQii and Purplle, and has proven upto a 30% uplift in the net revenues while reducing the cost per transaction by 77%. CustomerGlu being an API first platform can be stitched into any existing workflow seamlessly. To make it even easier, they have partnered up CDPs like mParticle (US) and are now launching 1-click integrations with eCommerce platforms like Shopify, Bigcommerce, and Woocommerce.

The startup has also received great reviews from its users.

CustomerGlu will be working on building different offer types like Seasonal Offer UIs and more. Their next milestone is to get paid customers on long term contracts and are looking to raise a larger round to propel them into the next phase of growth round to scale the business from there. They are open to investors, advisors and team members with similar interests to join them in the mission. Being an API first platform, CustomerGlu will be able to cater to a wide variety of industries.

CustomerGlu – FAQs

What is CustomerGlu?

CustomerGlu helps businesses design customized, attractive and interactive offers for their customers.

Who is the founder of CustomerGlu?

Prateek Gupta, Raman Shrivastava and Sumant US are the founders of CustomerGlu.

What does CustomerGlu do?

CustomerGlu helps businesses design customized, attractive and interactive offers for their customers. The aim is to help eCommerce companies with saving money while improving conversions.

May 15, 2021

Khetigaadi.com – World’s First One-Stop Solution for Agricultural Machinery

India is one of the top countries, precisely second, worldwide in farm outputs. Agriculture sector employs 50% of the Indian work force and contributes 17-18% to the country’s GDP. A large section of our population depends on agriculture, especially our farmers. And the state of farmers in our country is worrisome. Floods, droughts, low income and unavailability of financial sources leads them in a debt trap and hence farmers, their families and the agriculture industry as a whole suffers. There are Government policies and non-government organizations helping farmers in many ways. But still, there is lot more that is needed to be done, and a startup that realized these issues and has come forward to further develop the agricultural sector through mechanization is Khetigaadi.com

Khetigaadi.com is the world’s first destination for tractors and farm mechanization. The platform is a marketplace for buying, selling and renting of agricultural equipment and also offers knowledge based advises to the farmers, and insurance and loan assistance on agricultural equipment. Pravin Shinde, the founder of Khetigaadi, put his heart and soul into this startup and his journey to success is commendable. StartupTalky interviewed Pravin Shinde to find out more about the venture.

Khetigaadi – Company Highlights

StartupName	Khetigaadi
HeadQuarter	Pune
Founder’s Name	Mr. Pravin Shinde and Vishnu Dhas
Sector	Agro-Tech
Founding Year	2018
Website link	Khetigaadi.com
Registered Entity Name	ATFEM Khetigaadi Pvt. Ltd.

About Khetigaadi and How it Works
Khetigaadi – Market and Industry Details
Founders of Khetigaadi
How was Khetigaadi Started
Khetigaadi – Startup Launch
Khetigaadi – Name and Logo
Khetigaadi – Revenue Model
Khetigaadi – User Acquisition
Khetigaadi – Startup Challenges
Khetigaadi – Competitors
Khetigaadi – Advisors and Mentors
Khetigaadi – Future Plans
Khetigaadi – FAQs

About Khetigaadi and How it Works

Khetigaadi is world’s first destination where one can buy, sell, rent, compare and review tractors and farm mechanization, all with a simple click. It has been established to encourage farm mechanization and usage of technology and hi-tech products in agriculture to optimize yield in less man-hours. It is not just an online market place to source agricultural implements, but is also a knowledge based advisory platform for the farming community and provides insurance and loan assistance on various agricultural equipment.

Built on high-tech angular technology, Khetigaadi portal is as safe as an online banking portal. To make the platform user friendly for the farmers, Khetigaadi has made it available as an App in 10 languages and the company’s website can be viewed in 3 different languages, English, Hindi and Marathi. The concept is techno-savvy and compatible with IOS as well as Android.

Khetigaadi – Market and industry details

According to a recent NABARD report, the size of the farm equipment market is expected to reach 9 lakh crore by 2022.

As said by Pravin, “The current farm mechanism industry is almost 80 thousand crore where new tractor industry takes up 40 thousand crore, the old tractor industry is at 20 thousand crore, rental tractor industry is gauged approx.at 15k crore and finally the implement industry is at around. 5 thousand crore”

Founders of Khetigaadi

Mr. Pravin Shinde and Vishnu Dhas are the Co-founders of Khetigaadi.com.

Pravin Shinde himself is a farmer’s son and he witnessed the hardships faced by agricultural community closely. His aim was to address one of this major challenges of our country. Pravin is a graduate in Economics and a diploma holder in Agricultural Technology. He began his professional career by joining his family owned business dealing in fertilizers, pesticides and chemicals. Pravin’s family was the first one to know about his plans and the idea behind conceiving Khetigaadi. After gaining a bit of market experience, he joined SAR Agrochemicals & Fertilizers Pvt. Ltd., which was founded by his elder brother, Prashant Shinde.

Today SAR Agro-chemicals & Fertilizers Pvt. Ltd. is amongst the finest manufacturers, suppliers, traders, distributors and importers of range of Organic and Inorganic Fertilizers. Apart from managing Khetigaadi, Pravin is also Founding Director of SAR Agro-chemicals & Fertilizers Pvt. Ltd.

In Oct. 2017 Pravin was in the process of taking SAR Agro-chemicals & Fertilizers beyond local borders. He met Mr. Vishnu Dhas at an event. They say when you have similar interests, working together becomes easy. Vishnu’s views about the need to further mechanize farming techniques and raising the farmers, our ‘annadatas’ on a respectable strata of the society, were similar to Pravin’s ideas and vision. In no time their wavelengths matched and Pravin and Vishnu came together to do a successful event together in February 2018. After that there has been no looking back. Pravin and Vishnu officially got together in June 2018 and Mr. Vishnu Dhas became an integral part of Khetigaadi as Co-founder and Executive Director.

How was Khetigaadi Started

Pravin being from a farmer family was well aware of the issues the farmer faced, and was willing to do something for the improvement of the status of the farmers. Khetigaadi was started with a vision to bring about and facilitate a positive change in the way farming is undertaken in India and to bring India at par with the developed nations in terms of farm mechanization.

“Farmers are the most important ones – our ‘Annadata’. My quest is to empower them, improve their current situation and bring them into the mainstream. They deserve limelight and I want them to realize how important their part is in our lives. My conscious is continuously hunting for novel ideas to better their situation.” says Pravin explaining the motto behind starting Khetigaadi.

Farmers, their challenges, the villages, techno-innovation in bringing about a positive change in the agricultural sector – all of this is very close to his heart. Through Khetigaadi he seeks to reach out to a maximum number of farmers in each and every nook and corner of India with the help of technology.

I am constantly thinking about how else can I offer the farmers with solutions that will take away manual labour from their routine and at the same time fetch them good yield.

Khetigaadi – Startup Launch

When Khetigaadi started off, the team did not even have all the information required to educate and convince the farmers, on one platform. It wasn’t available online nor were there any offline sources where they could collate it from. They reached out to various agriculture-based research centers and sometimes even purchased the much-need information and reports. This exercise took almost a year where they compiled all the data and studies that will help enlighten the farmers and convince them about the need for mechanization.

Mr. Pravin Shinde’s brother also came in and helped a lot with the business activities. They built the website in-house without any professional help. They eventually built the website to what it looks today, through trial and error and multiple hurdles. It is a success nonetheless!

Khetigaadi launched the portal in May 2016 from its Pune office. They faced some backlash when they got started. But Khetigaadi team reached out to the farmers undeterred. Exhibitions, One-ones, sessions and social media handles have helped them immensely in their awareness campaign.

Moving further, Khetigaadi commercially launched itself in 2018 for manufacturers and distributors of tractors and farm equipment. Renowned tractor manufacturer John Deere was the first customer on the platform.

Khetigaadi – Name and Logo

As the platform deals with vehicle (gaadi) and equipment used for agriculture (kheti), the company is rightly called ‘Khetigaadi’

All of us dream of owning a vehicle (either a four wheeler or a two wheeler depending upon aspirations). Similarly, a farmer also aspires to own one albeit, his fancy is of owning a tractor that’ll help him take his farming skills on to the next level. It in fact for him is synonymous with his farm. A ‘gaadi’ used for ‘kheti’ and that’s where we leaped feeling thrilled for thinking of ‘khetigaadi’. That moment is still fresh like yesterday for me.

After the word ‘Khetigaadi’ was coined, and their team started building the platform, they realized that there is no other such platform in the world where information regarding farming automation and mechanization is collated and accessible. That’s when they came up with the tagline, ‘World’s first Agri-Mechanism for Indian Agriculture’.

Khetigaadi – Revenue Model

Khetigaadi serves as an Advertising and Marketing platform for all manufacturers, and dealers. The Khetigaadi revenue model works from-

Display Advertising
Enquiry Selling
Transaction base
Google Adsense
Product Promotion
Dealer Promotion
Reach Media

Khetigaadi – User Acquisitions

The team of Khetigaadi traveled village to village talking to farmers. Beginning with Nashik in Maharashtra and Jalandhar in Punjab, they met farmers one-by-one and explained the concept of Khetigaadi. After initial hiccups and disbelief, the farmers were convinced about Khetigaadi. These are the two cities where they got their first 15-20 clients.

Pravin and Vishnu also spent almost one year in different initiatives like exhibitions, seminars, one-one discussions and workshops; to share information and enlighten farmers on how best can they optimize yield by mechanization. Social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook helped them take their awareness campaign to another level and helped them reach the grass root levels. With all of these, Khetigaadi managed to bring a sizeable farmer community on their platform.

I would like to give due credit to the new generation of farmers who are tech-savvy and keen on exploring innovation in farming.

Khetigaadi – Startup Challenges

Khetigaadi faced many challenges along its way. Starting off, was communication of a techno-driven initiative to uneducated farmer community. However, the team received positive response from the farmers.

The kind of enthusiasm shown and hunger to know more about mechanization is unparalleled. It was their curiosity that encouraged us to collate all possible data on one platform so that it becomes available for one and all – says Pravin about the response the Khetigaadi team received from the farmers

Khetigaadi – Competitors

Some of the competitors of Khetigaadi that have recently entered the Indian market are Tractor Gyan and Tractor Guru. Khetigaadi however, precisely stands out from the competitors as they don’t just offer buying, selling and renting of farm equipment but also guide them to boost the farmers confidence in decision-making. There are similar platforms in terms of concept but the kind of technology, information and knowledge they offer; is second to none.

Khetigaadi – Advisors and Mentors

Mr. Pravin Shinde’s family and friends have provided rock-solid support in every initiative that he has taken up. The team is also looking forward to on board experienced mentors for guiding them to take up the market, that is increasingly becoming competitive.

Khetigaadi – Future Plans

Khetigaadi recently achieved a significant milestone by registering 30 lakh farming communities on Khetigaadi platform. They also have on board 8 reputed tractor brands as clients.

Going forward their ambition is to provide one single platform for tractor and farm equipment brands where they can sell and service their products alongside assisting them in business development. Khetigaadi’s mission is to connect 10 Million farmers to mechanized ways of farming.In the near future, Khetigaadi will also introduce AI based products.

Our farmers and the farming community are significant contributors towards the ecosystem and yet are the most neglected ones. Our core objectives are to educate them with right knowledge of farm mechanization, to encourage them to deploy it and optimize yield and of course to empower them with latest farming technology. We are already witnessing a positive difference with our initiatives amongst the farming community – Pravin Shinde, one of the founders of Khetigaadi

Khetigaadi – FAQs

What is Khetigaadi?

Khetigaadi is world’s first destination where one can buy, sell, rent, compare and review tractors and farm mechanization, Khetigaadi is an online platform where one can buy, sell and rent agricultural machinery. They also provide loan and insurance assistance on agricultural equipment.

When was Khetigaadi founded?

Khetigaadi was founded in 2016.

What sector does Khetigaadi operate in?

Khetigaadi is in Agricultural Products.

May 14, 2021

Univariety – Providing Knowledge and Guidance to all Indian Students

As per the 2018 census, India has a population of 135.26 crores. Of these 135.26 crores, approximately 25 crore students live in India. There are a lot of students out of 25 crore who are worried about their studies and their career path. Many don’t know what to do after they complete 10+2. Management problems also face many students at times. Univariety is the app that provides guidance to the students concerned. Guidance related to their careers as well as choosing colleges through various tools, counselling, etc.

Read the Univariety success story below to know more about Univariety Funding, Business model, Growth, revenue, competitors and more.

Univariety – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Univariety
Headquarters	Hyderabad, India
Founder	Jaideep Gupta
Founded	2011
Total Funding	$3 Million
Sector	EdTech
Website	univariety.com

Univariety – About
Univariety – Founder And Team
Univariety – Business Model
Univariety – Tagline And Logo
Univariety – Funding And Investors
Univariety – Competitors
Univariety – Growth
Univariety – FAQ’s

Univariety – About

Univariety is a unique guidance platform for students. It offers the schools an unparalleled service experience in the form of a comprehensive career and college guidance solution for the students, counsellors, parents and also the school management system. Univariety aims to be a marketplace with students in the centre for the college admission process. It’s the leading career counselling and college guidance platform for schools. The mission of the company is to help the students to get admitted to their dream university.

Univariety – Founder And Team

Jaideep Gupta is the founder and CEO and Varun Aggarwal is the COO and Co-founder of Univariety.

Jaideep Gupta is the leader to drive the force behind the scenes. He pursued his BBS in Finance from Delhi University. Then he did his MBA in Finance and Strategy from the SVKM’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. He worked as a Derivatives Trades Analyst at the GE Corporate Treasury. He was also selected to be a part of the premier leadership program. He also worked as the Associate Director at Ernst & Young Corporate Finance. He was selected as the Senior Manager & Area Director and Vice President for a few years. Presently he is at Singapore working at Univariety.

Univariety – Tagline And Logo

The tagline of Univariety is Discover and be discovered.

Univariety – Business Model

Univariety collects a fee for connecting the capable students to the universities. Each program has different modules specifically designed for the different types of students. Their programs are divided into ages or classes of students, and also have different programs at different prices. There are programs starting at Rs. 2,000 and going up to Rs. 1,225,000. Students can also take various types of tests in order to get the best guidance. Business management is a very important thing here. Relevant knowledge, essential skills are necessary to understand the economy.

Univariety – Funding And Investors

Univariety has raised a total amount of $3 Million in funding over the 2 rounds. It is funded by Info Edge.

Date	Transaction Name	Money Raised	Lead Investors
March 21, 2020	Corporate Round	$1.1 Million	Info Edge
December 20, 2017	Series A	$1.9 Million	Info Edge

Univariety – Competitors

The top competitors of Univariety are GetmyUni, MapMyTalent, CareerGuide, CollegeBol, MINDLER, CollegeSearch, and Careerfutura.

GetMyUni is a platform where students can apply to get admitted into top colleges of India. It also gives details about the fees, courses, scholarships, placements and reviews.
MapMyTalent is a career counsellor expert that offers guidance based on scientifically designed Aptitude Test.
CareerGuide provides instant career guidance to the students. It also enables users to browse career options.
CollegeBol is a platform that helps the students to select a college. Based on the course wise reviews and ratings. These are given by the former or the current students of India.
MINDLER helps the students to find the perfect career, college, stream and courses. It takes the help of India’s best counsellors to perform the task.
CollegeSearch provides information to the students about universities and examinations. It also helps the students to compare colleges and universities.
Careerfutura provides career counselling in an innovative way. It also provides the Aptitude Test to the students.

Univariety – Growth

The journey of the company began in 2011. In between the years 2015-16 the company crossed 100+ partner schools. In between the years 2016-17 the company again crossed 350+ partners school mark. In between the years 2017-18 the company became a proud addition to the Info Edge Private Limited family. Info Edge will invested twice in the span of 3 years. Usually, the company uses the fund to make its tech stack strong and increase its customer base. Univariety’s alumni network includes 75000+ students, over 350 partner schools, and more than 200 active universities. Univariety has conducted more than 50,000 Psychometric Tests. Over 1,50,000 counselling sessions have been conducted. Univariety’s growth can be seen in these statistics.

Almost everyone dreams about a golden career of their own after 12th boards. Some of the students get confused. Some remain excited. But these all are a part of the journey. Univariety was always there and is still with the students to help them find out the best. It helps the students to chalk out their career and choose a stream. They prepare the students for the admission procedure to get them flexible for any kind of interviews that would take place in the future.

Univariety – FAQ’s

What is Univariety?

Students are guided at Univariety, a company that’s mission is to help them get into their dream university.

Who is the founder of Univariety?

Univariety was founded by Jaideep Gupta in 2011.

What is the total funding o Univariety?

The total funding of Univariety is $3 million.

Who invested in Univariety?

Info Edge are the investors in Univariety.

Where is the headquarters of Univariety?

The headquarters of Univariety is in Hyderabad.

May 13, 2021

User.com Company Profile – Advanced Marketing Automation Software

Engage your visitors, gain more leads, and increase conversion on your website. User.com is a marketing automation platform that gathers all tools for marketing, sales, and support in one system. Looking for a solution for small and medium-sized businesses? You are in the right place. With this software, you can collect real-time data about each customer separately, automate your communication and internal processes, and manage sales easily.

User.com – Company Highlights

Startup Name	User.com
Headquarter	Warsaw, Poland
Sector	Marketing Automation
Founders	Greg Warzecha & Mike Korba
Founded	2016
Legal Name	User.com SP. Z O.O
Website	user.com
Contact	contact@user.com

About User.com and How it Works
User.com – Target Market Size
How was User.com Started?
User.com – Product Overview
Founders of User.com
User.com – Name, Tagline, and Logo
User.com – Business Model and Revenue Model
User.com – Funding and Investors
User.com – Competitors
User.com – FAQs

About User.com and How it Works

User.com is a single platform providing its clients with intuitive tools for automation of marketing, sales, and customer support activities. It integrates all communication channels (email campaigns, web push, mobile push, in-app messages, SMS, call center, live chat, chatbot), CRM as well as user-friendly analytics & reporting tools in one place.

The heart of User.com is its automation module with an intuitive drag & drop automation builder and a library of ready-to-use automation templates (almost 200). User.com has email campaigns, dynamic content, chatbot, live chat, visitors tracking, CRM, popups, and many more.

The company’s mission is to create modern marketing solutions with a human touch. Combining personalized omnichannel communication with lots of automation possibilities, User.com lets you drive engagement and deliver extraordinary customer experience from the very first website visit to advocacy. With User.com you have everything you need to build a personal relationship between your brand and every customer.

Marketing, sales, and customer service teams from around the world use this software to:

Gain insights about website visitors
Generate leads
Increase sales
Streamline processes
Provide exceptional support, and much more.

User.com – Target Market Size

According to Grand View Research, in 2019 the size of the marketing automation industry was estimated at $4.06 billion. It is a rapidly growing market expected to reach $8.42 billion by 2027.

“At User.com we are aware that the demand for marketing, sales, and support automation software will grow further in the coming years. However, we do not build our business strategy around achieving particular market shares. Instead, we focus on the continuous increase of the number of satisfied clients”, says Greg Warzecha, founder of User.com.

How was User.com Started?

The idea of User.com was born on the occasion of the Civil Hub initiative. Its founder, Greg Warzecha, struggled with the unsatisfactory level of the online community involvement. At some point, he found out that on the basis of the website users’ behavior tracking, it would be possible to understand their intentions and contact them with the right message via live chat.

With time, the idea of automating communication and analyzing users’ interests was born. The huge interest of potential customers in developing the idea led to the commercialization and expansion of this solution.

User.com – Product Overview

User.com is an opportunity for many small and medium businesses to accelerate their growth. With the platform, marketing, sales, and customer service departments and managers of the entire organization can work together through one interface. Integration of a dozen or so solutions allows clients to get a full picture of the business and users. Also, combining many tools in one place enables businesses to reduce the chaos caused by using various apps from many providers.

User.com’s key strength and competitive advantage is the availability of many digital marketing tools under one roof. It combines cross-device user tracking with omnichannel communication features, CRM, and automation. On top of that, there are a few extremely useful add-ons like, among others, dynamic HTML blocks that enable clients to personalize their pages for a single user or knowledge base module which clients use to share knowledge about their products & services with their customers.

Founders of User.com

Greg Warzecha is founder and CEO of User.com. Mike Korba is CCO (Chief Commercial Officer) of User.com and its co-founder.

Greg Warzecha, Founder and CEO of User.com

User.com – Name, Tagline, and Logo

Choosing a catchy name is not a simple task, but after long considerations the first domain of the product was UserEngage.io. The advantages of this domain were-

The fact that it was cheap
It was possible to hand register.

After seed funding, the company decided to buy the UserEngage.com domain from Techstars.com ($10,000).

At a certain point, the team started to think about changing it to a more catchy four-letter name, which would be a huge step forward (User.com). The discussions began at $750,000. But thanks to months-long negotiations, in the end, they bought the domain for $150,000. Rebranding and investing in a single-word .com domain (after receiving the first tranche of Series A funding) was very positively received by the business community and contributed to the acceleration of User.com’s growth.

User.com – Business Model and Revenue Model

User.com has four plans –

Free ($0 per month)
Personal (starting at $49 per month)
Business (starting at $249 per month)
Premium (starting at $1349 per month).

Live chat feature — Revenue model of User.com

All prices include unlimited agent seats, a set of base contacts, CRM, analytics, live chat, appointment scheduling, knowledge base and push notifications. The final price depends on the functions one is interested in and on the contact database size (number of contacts). Discounts are available if billed quarterly, biannual, or annually. There is a free 14-day trial, which you can access without providing a credit card.

User.com – Funding and Investors

In 2018, User.com came into agreement with Vercom S.A., a martech investment company, and received its first tranche of Series A funding.

Date	Stage	Amount	Investors
October 2018	Series A	$2.7 Mn	Vercom S.A

User.com – Competitors

As the heart of the software is automation, User.com directly competes with recognized marketing automation platforms. It also position itself as an alternative to online conversational and communication software. User.com’s major competitor is ActiveCampaign, which has a similar business model.

According to CEO Greg Warzecha, “Unlike some bigger marketing automation companies, we treat pricing transparency very seriously and always try to act towards our clients as a trusted business partner and not as a software provider”.

User.com – FAQs

What is User.com?

User.com is a platform that enables marketing, sales, and customer support activities to be automated efficiently and effectively.

Who are the founders of User.com?

Greg Warzecha is a co-founder and CEO, Mike Korba is Co-founder and COO of User.com.

What is the total Funding and who are the investors of User.com?

Vercom S.A invested $2.7Mn on October 2018.

Where is the headquarters of User.com?

Warsaw, Poland.

May 12, 2021

Aviate Company Profile – Making College Students Job Ready

Every student dreams of getting good grades, good college and a good life ahead. The young budding mind is curious, puzzled and still learning how the world works. The academic education and grades will only help too much, a person will need practical knowledge, certain skill set and so called “experience”. Aviate helps its Students to prepare for a job.

A freshly graduated individual struggles in finding a path, a direction to a journey he has to cross alone. The college, peers and adults in one’s life can only help through the way of giving advice, which at often times confuses the person. What these final year graduates need is the correct training about the work and skills they will need to instill in order to enter the recruitment market with the confidence and competence. As such, Aviate will guide their students in the right direction and also help them develop important and necessary skills to get a job.

Almost all the companies coming to the placement cells for recruitment are looking for students who have good communication skills and are fast learners. Why? Because they will be trained after the competitive range of interviews, GDs and tests of all sorts. Aviate provides the very same stage – a program with a vision to change the hiring market by training job-seekers on a very role-specific and organization/industry-specific that is designed in collaboration with the employers and geared to inculcate the operational as well as the soft competencies that an employer seeks for a particular job profile.

Aviate – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Aviate
Headquarter	Bangalore
Founder	Rishi Raj Rahul & Kundan Kumar
Sector	Edtech cum Recruitment
Founded	2019
Parent Organization	Aviate Education Private Limited

About Aviate
Founders of Aviate and Team
How was Aviate Started
Aviate – Name and Logo
Aviate – Business Model and How it works
Aviate – User Acquisition
Aviate – Funding and Investors
Aviate – Startup Challenges
Aviate – Competitors
Aviate – Advisors and Mentors
Aviate – Hiring Partners
Aviate – Future Plans
Aviate – FAQs

About Aviate

Aviate is a platform for employability-enhancement and placement services for fresh college graduates and final year college students. Aviate’s long-term vision is to disrupt the hiring market for entry-mid level roles. Aviate’s objective is to create a world where companies recruit via a train and hire model instead of the current norm of hiring people and then training them to be job-ready.

Aviate’s strategy is to train job-seekers on a very role-specific and organization/industry-specific courses that are designed in collaboration with the employers and geared to inculcate the operational as well as the soft competencies that an employer seeks for a particular job profile.

Post the training, job-seekers are thoroughly assessed (the assessments are also approved by the employers and designed to gauge a candidate-profile fit) and only the ones that make the cut are sent for interviews.

Aviate also has a retention cum mentorship programme wherein the alumni are paid a retention bonus after they complete a year with their organization. In exchange, the alumni conduct screening and mentorship sessions for incoming batch of job-seekers targeting the Alumni’s industry or profile. This also helps the alumni by granting them a sizeable supplementary income and provides the best possible mentorship to candidates aspiring for a particular role or an industry.

The advantages of the ‘train and hire’ approach for employers are-

Reduce employer’s TAT for hiring because of curation of eligible candidates made by Aviate.
Reduce the training costs and unlock a lot of opportunity costs as the candidates are job-ready.
Reduce attrition rates via its retention cum mentorship programme.

The advantages for job-seekers are-

Guaranteed Jobs for successful candidates
Successful candidates get a job offer within 24-96 hours
Employability – Enhancement by inculcation of core operational and soft skills
Supplementary income via our retention cum mentorship programme
No upfront training fee
Pan-India access to multiple job profiles and employers

Founders of Aviate and Team

Rishi Raj Rahul is the founder and CEO of Aviate.

Rishi is an Engineer from MIT Manipal and he also attended MBA course at MDI Gurgaon for an year before dropping Out. Previously, he worked with LetsTransport as National Sales Manager, where he scaled revenue to $10Million ARR. He also spearheaded strategic partnerships with Porsche and JW Marriot during his stint at Bidsvilla.

Kundan Kumar, an alumnus of IIT BHU (CSE) has joined Aviate as a Co-founder and CTO. Kundan is experienced in full-stack development. Kundan had Co-founded a company called Medaboss in the healthtech space and has also worked as tech lead with many organisations in the past.

“I talked to Kundan on LinkedIn when he pinged me as he was itching to work in this space as he had a very similar idea a few years ago. So I remember having several very late-night conversations with him and when we realized that our vision for the product and the business were aligned, he flew down to meet us and before long, he had put in his papers and would be joining us full-time in August as a co-founder and CTO”, Rishi informed.

In addition to the founders, Abhishek Singh is a core team member and heads the operations and online supply acquisition. Abhishek is an alumnus of IIT Dhanbad. Aviate has also made another addition in the form of Malika Bhutani to the core team as the head of community relations wherein she would lead the supply acquisition efforts.

How was Aviate Started

Rishi had faced the problem of hiring good frontline sales reps for a few organizations that he had been a part of and he used to wonder why that was the case and then one thing led to another and he started researching about the problem.

Rishi spoke to the Talent acquisition teams at several prominent BFSI, FMCG and retail companies that typically employ a large sales and operations workforce. He realized that a lot of their hiring for frontline roles is outsourced to recruitment agencies and they don’t really have a good curation mechanism.

“What I realized were three problems on the side of employers, the time taken to hire was protracted owing to a lack of good curation, the candidates needed training post-employment and weren’t job-ready and the attrition rates for these profiles was pretty high.”, said Rishi.

Rishi also spoke to a lot of placement officers across colleges in the country, students that had recently graduated or were about to in order to understand the problems at their end. Rishi also discussed it with a few friends that are entrepreneurs and some that work with a VC fund to get a sense of what they thought of the idea. By the end of last year, Rishi put in his papers at LT and decided to take a plunge and try to solve these problems.

Aviate – Name and Logo

“We just brainstormed on a couple of ideas for the name and when we zeroed in on Aviate” says Rishi.

The founder (Rishi) himself created the company’s logo.

Aviate Logo

Aviate – Business Model and How it works

Aviate is a pioneer in the ‘train and hire’ model. Aviate trains job-seekers on very role-specific and organization/industry-specific courses that are designed in collaboration with the employers. Post training the trainees are assessed and only those perform well are sent for interviews. To reduce attrition, Aviate also provides incentives to those alumni who complete minimum an year with an organization.

The advantages of this ‘train and hire’ model are-

Effective curation of employees. Employers can recruit from a candidate pool that is pre-trained.
Candidates are job ready even before getting hired. So the companies can skip the need for in-house training.
Reduced attrition. The alumni receive retention bonus on completion of minimum one year of job with a company, which reduces the attrition rate.
Role specific training and assessments designed in collaboration of the employers bridges skill gaps.

Aviate – User Acquisitions

Aviate’s client acquisition strategy has mostly been about identifying industries and sectors where they feel the model of hiring can create a dent and then reaching out to relevant stakeholders in the organizations to take the conversations ahead. Aviate is currently focusing on community building through campus ambassador network, internship platform and promotional events. The company is also taking help of digital marketing to reach out to potential customers.

Aviate – Funding and Investors

Aviate raised a total funding of $45K in Feb, 2019.

Date	Stage	Amount	Investor
Feb 22, 2019	Angel	$45K	Sanchit Saraf, Abhimanyu Dhamija, Ravish Naresh, Pushkar Singh along with some other angels

Aviate – Startup Challenges

A major challenge for Aviate has been to build a good mechanism for offline supply acquisition. They initially started by reaching out to colleges for supply acquisition but soon realized that most colleges could care less about the placements and outcomes for their students.

“It’s so sad it isn’t even funny. Some colleges are responsive but the overwhelming majority couldn’t care less about outcomes as long as their seats are getting filled and they’re making money”, says Rishi.

Now their focus in terms of offline supply acquisition is to build a network of campus ambassadors to evangelize the cause. They also plan to launch an internship platform in order to try and get a lock-in on the supply side right from the first year of college.

Aviate – Competitors

Aviate’s model is different from the other players in this space like Manipal pro-learn or times learning etc. Rishi, is fairly sure that some great companies would emerge in this space. However, he thinks what Lambda has achieved is quite remarkable and investors and entrepreneurs alike have shown quite an interest in creating an Indian clone of Lambda. They will be watching this space with great interest specially to see if and how the Income sharing Agreement model works in India.

However, there are several companies and entrepreneurs that Rishi finds inspirational like Larry Ellison (oracle), Divyank Turakhia (directi, Media.net), Nithin Kamath (Zerodha), Ashish Kashyap (Goibibo, INDwealth) among several others.

“Tech-enabled/tech-based recruitment has seen a few interesting companies but none have managed to solve the problem at scale except Naukri. It is a little odd that none of the startups founded post 2010 have made a dent in the market in terms of the scale that naukri enjoys. In terms of skill development, the market has tinkered with a train and hire model however we feel that no one has really created a model that hinges on incentive-alignment of all stakeholders. We do think a lot of interesting plays will emerge in the broader recruitment and skill-development space.”, says Rishi.

Aviate – Advisors and Mentors

Aviate is being mentored by Pushkar Singh (Co-founder Let’s Transport) and Ravish Naresh (Co-founder Khatabook and housing).

Aviate – Hiring Partners

Unacademy, Toppr, KhataBook, White Hat Jr., CampK12, Lido, GoMechanic, Jaro Education, Travel Triangle, Vidyakul, Proctur, Jodo, CollegeDoors, Enguru, Scholr, Sutherland, LetsTransport, and many more are the hiring partners of Aviate.

Aviate – Future Plans

Aviate has signed up clients and has commenced training and hiring for them. The immediate focus for the next years is to create a wide array of content that enables them to create a broader base of profiles and roles as they feel this will trigger a positive feedback loop with tremendous network effects.

Depth and breadth of content and job-types would lead to a better supply and a better supply would lead to better demand from clients. Kick-starting and optimizing this feedback loop is their immediate focus.

Aviate – FAQs

What is Aviate?

The Aviate platform provides college graduates and final-year students with employability-enhancing and placement services.

Who are the founders of Aviate?

Rishi Raj Rahul is the founder and CEO of Aviate and Kundan Kumar is the co-founder and CTO.

Where is the headquarters of Aviate?

Bomanhalli, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560068, India.

What is the total Funding and who are the investors of Aviate?

Total funding is – $45K in Feb, 2019. Invested by Angel investors – Sanchit Saraf, Abhimanyu Dhamija, Ravish Naresh, Pushkar Singh along with some other angels.

May 10, 2021

Pfizer – One of the Leading Biopharmaceutical Companies In the World

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Pfizer.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that the US was currently manufacturing doses for all six potential vaccines backed by President Donald Trump’s government across more than 23 manufacturing facilities. These includes vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, which are all in late-stage testing.

Pfizer is a research-based multinational biopharmaceutical corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes healthcare products. Medicines and vaccines are part of its global portfolio. The Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine that is marketed under the brand name Comirnaty. It is given to people aged 16 and up to protect them from infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19.

This article will give you a complete Company Profile of Pfizer. Know all about Pfizer history, business model, founders, revenue, acquisition, covid-19 vaccine & more…

Pfizer – Company Highlights

Company Name	Pfizer Inc.
Headquarters	New York City, New York
Industry	Pharmaceutical
Founders	Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart
Founded	1849
Products	Pharmaceuticals, vaccines
Current CEO	Albert Bourla
Areas Served	Worldwide
Website	pfizer.in

Pfizer – Latest News
About Pfizer and How it Works?
Pfizer – Mission and Vision
Pfizer – Founder and History
Pfizer – Covid-19 Vaccine
Pfizer – Key Pharmaceutical Products
Pfizer – Name, Logo, and Tagline
Pfizer – Business Model
Pfizer – Key Financial Metrics
Pfizer – Revenue and Growth
Pfizer – Investments
Pfizer – Acquisitions
Pfizer – Competitors
Pfizer – Challenges Faced
Pfizer – Future Plans
Pfizer – FAQs

Pfizer – Latest News

Pfizer/BioNTech has filed an application with the US Food and Drug Administration for full FDA approval of its Covid-19 vaccine for people aged 16 and up as of May 2021, according to the companies. This is the first Covid-19 vaccine to be evaluated by the FDA for complete approval in the United States.

The FDA has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to Pfizer’s mRNA two-shot vaccine for use in the United States. To date, 170 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed throughout the United States, according to the firms.

“We are proud of the tremendous progress we’ve made since December in delivering vaccines to millions of Americans, in collaboration with the U.S. Government,” Albert Bourla CEO of Pfizer, said in a statement.

“We look forward to working with the FDA to complete this rolling submission and support their review, with the goal of securing full regulatory approval of the vaccine in the coming months.”

About Pfizer and How it Works?

Pfizer is a research-based multinational biopharmaceutical corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes healthcare products. Medicines and vaccines are part of its global portfolio.

Cholesterol-lowering Lipitor, pain-relieving Celebrex and Lyrica, pneumonia vaccine Prevnar, and erectile dysfunction medication Viagra, as well as arthritis medicine Enbrel, antibiotic Zyvox, and blood-thinning Eliquis, are among the company’s top prescription items. Generic medications and consumer health goods are also manufactured and sold by the company.

In partnership with BioNTech SE, a German biotechnology firm, Pfizer recently produced an mRNA-based vaccine for COVID-19. The vaccine’s efficacy has been verified in several trials to be between 90 and 100 percent.

Pfizer – Mission and Vision

The vision statement of Pfizer is – “Innovate to bring therapies to patients that significantly improve their lives.”

Pfizer mission statement is “to become the world’s most valued company to all of these people.” It zeroes down on the achievements that the company desires while at the same time meeting the expectations of all its patients. It focuses on the company’s desired outcomes while still meeting all of its patients’ needs.

Pfizer – Founder and History

Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart, cousins who had immigrated to the United States from Ludwigsburg, Germany, founded Pfizer in 1849.

The company, which was based on Bartlett Street in Williamsburg, New York, developed chemical compounds, including an antiparasitic called santonin. Both in their mid-20s, the two men started a fine chemicals company in a Brooklyn factory with a loan from Pfizer’s father. Pfizer’s chemist skills were combined with Erhart’s confectioner training in the company’s first product, a palatable anti-parasitic drug that tasted like toffee. It was a huge success, and it set the tone for the company’s future growth.

The American Civil War, which broke out shortly after in 1862, had an equal effect on the emerging pharmaceutical industry as it did on American society as a whole. Drug manufacturers were just as much a part of the “first industrial war” as arms manufacturers. The sudden demand for massive amounts of painkillers and antiseptics for the Union armies, like that of their rival Squibb, presented a huge opportunity to increase production. Pfizer’s sales had doubled since the beginning of the war in 1868, and their product ranges had greatly expanded.

Following the battle, Pfizer began to concentrate on industrial chemicals rather than drugs, manufacturing citric acid for the burgeoning soft drink industry, which fueled the expansion of brands including Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper in the 1880s. For several years, this was their mainstay, setting the groundwork for their continued expansion. When the supply of tartaric acid was interrupted by the civil war and higher tariffs, Pfizer expanded its production to become the leading chemical supplier in the United States.

Pfizer – Covid-19 Vaccine

In April 2020, Pfizer collaborated with BioNTech to start developing a COVID-19 vaccine in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The BNT162b2 vaccine candidate is an mRNA vaccine. The drug-maker announced in November 2020 that results from Phase 3 clinical trials showed the vaccine was safe and reliable, with a 95 percent efficacy rate. It needs two doses, separated by 21 days.

Pfizer and BioNTech submitted an emergency use permission request to the FDA a few days after the positive clinical trial results were announced. The FDA approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for distribution in the United States on December 11, 2020.

Pfizer – Key Pharmaceutical Products

Many well-known products are manufactured and marketed by Pfizer. Some of the company’s most well-known brands are mentioned below –

Nexium24HR – Over-the-counter heartburn drug
Prevnar 13 – Vaccine to prevent pneumonia
Advil – Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (pain reliever)
Viagra – Erectile dysfunction drug
Xanax – Psychoactive medicine
Zoloft – SSRI antidepressant
Lipitor – Cholesterol medicine
Chantix – Smoking cessation drug
Bextra – Cox-2 inhibitor (pain reliever)
Depo-Testosterone – Testosterone replacement therapy drug
EpiPen – Auto-injector emergency allergy medicine
Celebrex – Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (pain reliever)
Zithromax – Macrolide antibiotic (bacterial infections)
Eliquis – Anticoagulant (blood thinner)
Protonix – Proton pump inhibitor acid-reducer
Prempro – Hormone replacement drug therapy
Effexor – SNRI antidepressant

Pfizer – Name, Logo, and Tagline

Pfizer’s company name is after the founder Charles Pfizer and its logo is shaped like a tablet of medicine. The oval-shaped logo is a powerful brand identity that conveys a message of optimism, well-being, and progress. As opposed to the initial limit “P,” the letter “f” is intentionally made larger.

The tagline outlines Pfizer’s purpose, “Breakthroughs that change patients’ lives.”

Pfizer’s Company Logo

Pfizer – Business Model

Pfizer Innovative Health and Pfizer Essential Health are the company’s two commercial divisions.

Pfizer Innovative Health is dedicated to the development and commercialization of pharmaceuticals and vaccines. Internal medicine, vaccination, oncology, inflammation and immunology, rare diseases, and consumer healthcare are among IH’s therapeutic fields.

Legacy labels, branded generics, generic sterile injectable drugs, biosimilars, and infusion systems are all included in the Pfizer Essential Health category. EH also has a research and development department, as well as a contract manufacturing division. Prevnar 13, Xeljanz, Eliquis, Lipitor, Celebrex, Pristiq, and Viagra are some of the company’s brands.

Pfizer – Key Financial Metrics

The table below highlights some of the key financial metrics of Pfizer (extracted from the company’s annual reports)

Financial Metric	2020 (In Millions)	2019 (In Millions)
Total Income	$9,616	$16,273
PAT(Margin)	-11.89	219.75
Equity Share Capital	45.75	45.75
Net Fixed Assets	2513.05	2127.65

Pfizer – Revenue and Growth

Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine sales exceeded analyst expectations by about 60%. As of mid-April 2021, the company produced 1.6 billion doses of the vaccine under signed contracts. Pfizer’s operating sales increased by 8% even without revenue from the COVID-19 vaccine.

Year	Amount	Percentage Change From Last Year
2021	$14.582B	+21.23%
2020	$41.908B	+1.79%
2019	$41.172B	+0.85%
2018	$40.825B	-22.31%

Pfizer – Investments

Date	Organization Name	Round	Amount
Mar 30, 2021	Pyxis Oncology	Series B	$152M
Feb 17, 2021	Imcyse	Series B	€21.3M
Oct 29, 2020	LianBio	Venture Round	$310M
Jul 29, 2020	Cerevel Therapeutics	Post-IPO Equity	$320M
May 19, 2020	Amplyx Pharmaceuticals	Series C	$53M
Apr 22, 2020	FoRx Therapeutics	Seed Round	€10M
Mar 20, 2019	Vivet Therapeutics	Corporate Round	€45M
Feb 19, 2019	Gliknik	Corporate Round	$15M
Nov 13, 2018	NextCure	Series B	$93M
Apr 19, 2018	Allogene Therapeutics	Series A	$411.8M

Pfizer – Acquisitions

Acquiree Name	About Acquiree	Date	Amount
Amplyx Pharmaceuticals	Amplyx focuses on developing innovative therapies for debilitating and life-threatening diseases in patients with compromised immune systems	Apr 28, 2021	–
Array BioPharma	Array BioPharma is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of targeted small molecule drugs.	Jun 17, 2019	$11.4B
Therachon	Therachon is a global biotechnology company focused on developing medicines for rare, genetic diseases	May 8, 2019	$340M
Medivation	Medivation, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the rapid development of small molecule drugs to treat serious diseases	Aug 22, 2016	$14B
Bamboo Therapeutics	Bamboo Therapeutics Announces the Acquisition of the Vector Core Manufacturing Facility from UNC-Chapel Hill	Aug 1, 2016	$654M
BIND Therapeutics	BIND Therapeutics is a clinical-stage nanomedicine platform company developing Accurins, a class of highly selective, targeted therapeutics.	Jul 27, 2016	$40M
Anacor Pharmaceutical	Anacor Pharmaceutical is a biopharmaceutical company developing small-molecule therapeutics from its boron chemistry platform.	May 16, 2016	$5.2B
Hospira	Hospira is a provider of injectable drugs and infusion technologies.	Feb 5, 2015	$15B
Redvax	A privately held Swiss biopharmaceutical company	Jan 5, 2015	–
Baxter International – Marketed Vaccines	The portfolio that was consists of NeisVac-C and FSME-IMMUN/TicoVac.	Jul 30, 2014	$635M

Pfizer – Competitors

The top competitors of Pfizer are Merck, Novartis, BMS, Johnson & Johnson, GSK, Abbott, Cipla, Roche, Eli Lilly, and Bayer.

Pfizer – Challenges Faced

With exclusivity for Pfizer’s second-best-selling medication, Lyrica, expected to expire in June, the pharma expects a $2.6 billion sales hit from competitive pressures, almost $1 billion more than in 2018.
As of November 2020, Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, made in partnership with the German firm BioNTech, was stored at subzero temperatures, and there were lots of distribution challenges in rolling it out in the weeks ahead.

Pfizer is “running at critical supply limitations,” Dr. Bourla, the CEO said, adding that he hopes the government deploys the Defense Production Act to solve the problem.

Meanwhile, the FDA contacted Pfizer about a different problem with its vaccine. According to some press accounts, several pharmacists giving the shots found that each vial contained more than the planned five doses. They wondered if they could eke out another dose, or even two, from the leftovers.

Pfizer – Future Plans

Pfizer has revealed plans to increase sales in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia, which are all developing markets. The organization will use its global reach and product portfolio to provide health solutions to the rising and underserved population of middle-income patients in these areas.

The company identified four factors that will aid its expansion in the developing Asian pharmaceutical market, which is worth $47 billion. Expanding its current presence in high-growth markets, establishing leadership in oncology, tailoring portfolio offerings to local consumer needs, and leveraging global manufacturing and R&D in Asia are among these factors.

Pfizer expects to spend $5 billion in capital projects in the United States over the next five years, including expanding its manufacturing footprint in the country. In 2019, it announced an additional half-billion-dollar investment in Sanford, North Carolina, for the construction of a cutting-edge gene therapy manufacturing facility.

Pfizer – FAQs

What does Pfizer do?

Pfizer is a research-based multinational biopharmaceutical corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes healthcare products. Medicines and vaccines are part of its global portfolio.

Who founded Pfizer?

Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart, cousins who had immigrated to the United States from Ludwigsburg, Germany, founded Pfizer in 1849.

Which companies do Pfizer compete with?

The top competitors of Pfizer are Merck, Novartis, BMS, Johnson & Johnson, GSK, Abbott, Cipla, Roche, Eli Lilly, Bayer.

Does Pfizer produce Covid-19 vaccine?

Yes, Pfizer produces Covid-19 vaccine.

Does Pfizer export Covid-19 vaccine?

Yes, Pfizer exports Covid-19 vaccine.

May 10, 2021

Kapture CRM – A Single Platform to Manage Sales and Service Teams

What do we as consumers want today? Only one thing, that the products and services that we avail should facilitate our tasks and activities in the most optimized format. And why not! When everything today is built and availed only with the sole motive of easing the process be it business or individual, this certainly feels the right philosophy to follow! One such software is Kapture CRM. Founded in the year 2011, by the Co-founders Sheshgiri Kamath ( CEO), Vikas Garg (CTO ), Pearl Tewari (VP), this is a software that helps enterprises manage their service and sales teams on one single platform.

Kapture CRM Highlights

Startup Name	Kapture CRM
Headquarter	Bangalore
Co-founders	Sheshgiri Kamath, Vikas Garg & Pearl Tewari
Sector	Cloud based SaaS CRM Software
Founded	2011
Parent Organization	Adjetter Media Pvt. Ltd.
Website	kapturecrm.com

About Kapture CRM and How it Works
Kapture CRM – Founders and Team
How was Kapture CRM Started
Kapture CRM – User Acquisition
Kapture CRM – Name, Tagline and Logo
Kapture CRM – Business Model and Revenue Model
Kapture CRM – Funding and Investors
Kapture CRM – Startup Challenges
Kapture CRM – Advisors and Mentors
Kapture CRM – Acquisitions & Mergers
Kapture CRM – Awards & Recognitions
Kapture CRM – Growth
Kapture CRM – FAQs

About Kapture CRM and How it Works

Kapture CRM runs on a very simple vision which is to enable businesses to use software in a better and more efficient way and to be the number one productivity platform choice for enterprises. Kapture CRM helps enterprises manage their service and sales teams on one single platform. Being omnichannel, Kapture unifies operations seamlessly.

While the initial product was more focused on marketing, once they pivoted to the sales and service CRM model, thy witnessed great traction. They pivoted because the first product wasn’t gaining traction and realized that sales is a larger problem to solve. In 2016 they launched the service cloud, which today is their fastest-growing product.

Kapture CRM – Founders and Team

Sheshgiri Kamath, Vikas Garg and Pearl Tewari co-founded Kapture CRM. All the members of the founding team are passionate entrepreneurs.

Convincing the founding team was not tough since everyone was very clear about the need to be an entrepreneur. The time, idea and the team were right and we started up! – Sheshgiri says

Kapture CRM CEO Sheshgiri Kamath, is a commercial pilot from Cloud Dancer Aviation in Daytona, USA

Vikas Garg is the CTO of Kapture CRM. Vikas holds a BTech – CSE (Computer Science and Engineering )from IIT Guwahati.

Pearl Tewari, Vice President, Kapture CRM holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Punjab University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Wales.

Regarding responsibilities, Vikas heads technology and the ops teams. Pearl takes care of Marketing & international sales while Sheshgiri works on business development and strategic initiatives.

Today Kapture CRM is a fast-growing team of 200 people. While they believe in transparency and empowerment of the people, they also look for smart people who are self-motivated and don’t believe in micro-management. Majority of the leadership team today has grown internally from the grassroots.

How was Kapture CRM Started

Sheshgiri ,Vikas and Pearl started Adjetter , a platform for offline marketing automation in 2011. While that product was well-received, it didn’t take off the way it was expected to. However, their customers started loving the CRM interface that was bundled with the product, which led to the idea of starting Kapture CRM.

In 2014, Kapture launched as a standalone CRM. Today, 5 years, 500+ customers and 12 countries later, Kapture continues to be the preferred choice of growing enterprises looking for a transformational CRM experience.

Kapture CRM – User Acquisition

The first 10 customers were the most difficult ones. They did a few free pilots, got some good feedback, but never got paid! That’s when all of them argued and agreed not to do any Free POC’s anymore. Their first customer was a real estate developer in Bangalore whom they had to chase for 3 months. Once they got on board, The Kapture team managed to sign up another 5 builders. And then, they tried their luck with medical devices companies and that scaled up pretty quickly! One of their strategies is going deep into a vertical and then getting a reference from existing customers. That’s a better strategy due to the lower cost of customer acquisition as well

Kapture CRM’s sales team is split across different channels. They have separate teams for inside sales, pre-sales, enterprise, international and channel sales. As said by Sheshgiri Channel strategy has helped them scale pretty well.

Today, we are partnered with the likes of Wipro, who helped us sign up customers that otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to connect with – the Kapture CRM CEO quotes

They have a laser-sharp focus on the churn rate. They believe that for a SaaS platform to scale, churn rates have to be super low. Every lost customer is discussed, debated and worked on. This has made them a lot better as a product and definitely as a team.

They also don’t spend a lot on marketing. Their marketing efforts are more towards generating better content that helps potential customers understand their products better.

Kapture CRM – Name, Tagline and Logo

This story is as simple as it gets. They looked for capture CRM as the original name, but it wasn’t available hence they opted for ‘Kapture’

Their first startup, Adjetter, was named so because they were looking to first aggregate airline and travel advertising inventories.

Kapture CRM – Business Model and Revenue Model

The Kapture business model is based on a SaaS-based platform. Subscription revenue forms the bulk of their revenue. The packages are sufficiently priced in the range of 25-35 USD per user per month. They are currently profitable, thanks to a healthy gross margin and well-disciplined financial planning. Kapture CRM also boasts of a good retention rate. As Sheshgiri quotes,

Most of the customers start with one of our modules and then they grow with them across teams and products. Over 30% of our year on year revenue growth comes from the retained existing customers.

Kapture CRM – Funding and Investors

Kapture CRM raised a $200k angel round in 2014 and now they are planning on a fundraiser in the US in the next financial year.

Kapture CRM – Startup Challenges

Signing up the first few clients in the US and international markets was a huge challenge. Being an overseas startup with no feet on street or brand recall, they struggled to get meetings. As a result, they tried emails, calls, LinkedIn and what not. However, they kept iterating. Today, 30% of the company’s revenue comes from the US market and they hope to grow it to over 50% in 18 months.

Kapture CRM – Advisors and Mentors

The Kapture Team believes that their customers, partners, team members are their greatest mentors and advisors.

Kapture CRM – Acquisitions & Mergers

They acqu-hired 3 different startups with the view to get the right teams on board.

Kapture CRM – Awards & Recognitions

Kapture CRM was part of the Google Launchpad Accelerator program.

Their biggest achievement has been the ability to shift enterprises from well established big name CRMs to Kapture CRM based on its product’s capabilities.

Kapture CRM – Growth

Kapture CRM is headquartered in Bangalore with offices in Gurgaon, Mumbai, and Florida (USA). They work with 500+ customers across 12 countries. The average customer has 75 users and they have been profitable for the last two years. Some of their clients include Exxon Mobil, Sun Pharma, Bigbasket, Bahamas Paradise Cruise, Swiggy, Netmeds, Stanley Black and Decker. They have grown 200% in the last few years and 2019 has been extremely encouraging for the team.

Kapture CRM – FAQs

What is Kapture CRM?

Kapture CRM helps enterprises manage their service and sales teams on one single platform. Being omnichannel, Kapture unifies operations seamlessly.

Who is the Kapture CRM founder?

Sheshgiri Kamath, Vikas Garg and Pearl Tewari are the Founders of Kapture CRM.

What is the Kapture CRM revenue?

Kapture CRM’s estimated annual revenue is currently $9.9M per year.

May 10, 2021

TruePush- Free Forever Push Notifications

Push notifications have emerged as an effective marketing tool. 52% of smartphone users have push notifications enabled on their devices. Again, push notifications to have 5-10 times more CTR than e-mails, which has made it an important part of any digital marketing strategy.

Marketers can use it for promoting products and services, re-targeting, building brand reputation, and much more. Considering the huge potential and growing popularity of push notifications, TruePush a Hyderabad based startup has come up with free push notification services for everyone.

TruePush – Company Highlights

Startup Name	TruePush
Headquarter	Hyderabad
Founders	Ravi Vaka & Manoj Surya
Sector	Marketing Tool
Founded	2018
Parent organisation	Truepush Pvt. Ltd.

TruePush – Latest News
About TruePush
Founders of TruePush and Team
How was TruePush Started
TruePush – Name, Tagline and Logo
What is TruePush
TruePush – Revenue Model
TruePush – Funding and Investors
TruePush – User Acquisition
TruePush – Startup Challenges
TruePush – Competitors
TruePush – Growth
TruePush – Awards
TruePush – Future Plans
TruePush – FAQs

TruePush – Latest News

TruePush, a leading customer engagement platform in association with Amazon AWS presented the highly anticipated event of Fuckup Night Volume 4 Hyderabad- Quarantine Edition in May 2020. The event aimed at bringing out the professional failure stories of successful entrepreneurs in public which mostly includes emerging startups, entrepreneurs, and others.

The selected speaker for the event included Diksha Dwivedi, founder of Akkar Bakkar, Taran Chabbra, founder of Neeman’s shoes, and Upneet Grover, founder of GetMyUni. Each speaker shared their professional failure, and the learnings from the same, which was the value addition to every participant of this free event hosted on Zoom Online.

The reputed media partners for the events were The Hans India and HMTV, which covered the event on different social media platforms helping TruePush for the wider reach.

About TruePush

TruePush is a free push notification product for web and mobile. It offers feature-rich, high volume notifications for web & mobile, deep analytics and easy-to-use dashboard. This Hyderabad based startup founded in 2018, envisions to dominate the push notifications and re-engagement tools space in the next 3 years.

Founders of TruePush and Team

Ravi Vaka and Manoj Surya are the founders of TruePush. They met in a startup leadership program meet. The duo shared common ideas and came together to set up the startup in 2018.

Ravi Vaka is the Head of Customer Outreach & Success of TruePush. He oversees Customer Outreach, Customer Success, Customer Service and Quality Assurance Team. He aims to exceed the highest standards in delivering his clients with a lifetime experience.

Manoj Surya is the Head of Product. He is the person behind getting the product come in timelines according to the customer and market need.

TruePush started with 6 member team and currently have 9 full-time members.

How was TruePush Started

Ravi and Manoj realized that push notifications have a fast-growing market. The duo did thorough research and found there are no free products in the market for push-notifications. This made them think about introducing a push notification service free of cost, which would help users save money and time. Being a free tool, it soon gained good momentum and a lot of sign-ups.

We launched on product hunt in Jan 2019. The response was great. We had 400 + signups in a day after product hunt launch.

TruePush – Name, Tagline and Logo

“We deliberated on a few names and TruePush seemed catchy and easy to remember and so we went ahead,” said Manoj.

Since it is a free product, its tagline goes as – free push notifications forever.

The logo has a lot of lines going within it. These lines represent network/communication, as TruePush is a network and communication product.

TruePush Logo

What is TruePush

TruePush is a push notifications service that helps its clients to engage with their customers efficiently and effectively. Some of the features offered by TruePush are-

Unlimited Notifications, Campaigns, and Websites
Desktop Notifications, Mobile Push Notifications
Supports HTTP & HTTPS
Multi-browser support
Preview in different devices
2-way Opt-in
RSS To Push , Rich Push Notifications
Scheduling, Tags
TTL & Expire of notifications
Website and campaign wise analytics
Custom Segmentation and Predefined Segmentation
Smart Triggers, and Templates

Truepush also offers its users a personalized dashboard free of charges.

Again some of the new features, which are soon going to be added to TruePush are

A/B Testing
Drip & Journey Creator
Snooze option
Automated Segmentation
Plugin to WordPress and other hosting sites
Emoji Support
Send a message to Messenger on Web

“We believe, more users will be benefited when the costs are lower to use. Our tool is completely free to use for all features, both mobile and web and unlimited notifications”, says Ravi Vaka, founder of TruePush.

TruePush – Revenue Model

TruePush is currently providing the push notifications services free of cost and will continue to offer it for free forever. As far as the revenue model is concerned, it plans to monetize in the future from one of these ways-

As Google does, they may connect the cookie data of users to advertising partners. However, the company ensures that any personal information of the client is not used or shared with anyone.
They may add more re-engagement tools to TruePush and charge a low price from its users on other add-ons and leave Push Notifications feature for free, just like now.

TruePush – Funding and Investors

TruePush is backed by enterprise currently and has no plans of raising funds in the near future. It is a bootstrapped startup.

TruePush – User Acquisition

TruePush was able to acquire its first few customers through its network. A major chunk of its customers came from ProductHunt launch and later from Betalist. The company is also leveraging on a lot of word of mouth publicity.

“There are 654 million websites in the world and 5 million apps (All stores) and everyone can be our customer”, says Manoj Surya, founder of TruePush.

TruePush – Startup Challenges

As said by Manoj, TruePush did face many challenges, but the product market fit was never an issue for them. There were many incidents when the team had to move that extra mile for getting things done.

Manoj recalls, “One day we shared our product on ProductHunt 9th with no expectations. The team in festive mood was heading into Sankranti/ Pongal vacation and to our surprise, TruePush was trending on number 3 on ProductHunt and with close to 900 % increase in our numbers, we suddenly had to cancel our holiday plans and continued to work from office for the next few days.”

TruePush – Competitors

As said by Manoj, there are 70-80 companies in Push notifications segment that is doing well worldwide, but of these, TruePush is the only one which has all features free forever. PushCrew, Pushnami, Izooto etc are some of the competitors.

We made it free helping our clients to save up to $6000 compared to their prices while giving a robust product.

TruePush – Growth

TruePush has been accepted well by its target customers and has big names such as Govt of Telangana and NASA space apps as its client. Currently, it has 1700+ clients and sends 2+ billion notifications a month and aims at reaching 1 billion a day in the next quarter of the year.

TruePush – Awards

TruePush has recently entered the High Performers quadrant under the Push notifications category in March 2020 on the G2 review platform. This entrance has made it win the High Performers (Spring 2020) award by G2, which is the most searched and trusted review platform. By earning the most positive reviews on this platform, the startup has stepped much ahead of its competitors within a short span.

Along with receiving good reviews, feedbacks, and acceptance in the global market, TruePush has also received many global awards such as the “9th Most Popular Push Notifications Service in India” by BuiltWith, “Rising Star Award – 2019” and “Premium Usability Award – 2019” by FinancesOnline, and the “Fastest Growing Software in Push Notification” by SaaSworthy.

Besides, TruePush managed to come up as the 3rd top most company in the ProductHunt on Jan 9th, 2019. It has also trended on Betalist and beta page home pages.

TruePush – Future Plans

The company has a huge prospect for growth. Its future plans include-

Hitting 100M devices through its clients in 2020
Introducing more re-engagement tools In the next 1-2 years.
Emerging as a market leader in Push Notifications segment in the next 3 years.

It is important for companies and makers to feel liberated and deliver their best product to the world rather than thinking about making huge profits. It is incredibly hard to get your customers attention but once you retain them, it is easier to generate more ROI with the same customers

TruePush – FAQs

What is TruePush?

TruePush, a leading customer engagement platform in association with Amazon AWS presented the highly anticipated event of Fuckup Night Volume 4 Hyderabad- Quarantine Edition in May 2020.

Who is the founder of TruePush?

Ravi Vaka and Manoj Surya are the founder of TruePush.

Is TruePush free?

Yes, TruePush is always free for its customers.

May 9, 2021

Tag: 📄Company Profiles

Instacart – Company Highlights

Instacart – Recent News

About Instacart and How it Works?

Instacart – Name, Logo and Tagline

Instacart – Founder and History

Instacart – Mission and Vision

Instacart – Partners

Instacart – Business Model and Revenue Model

Instacart – Revenue and Growth

Instacart – Funding and Investors

Instacart – Acquisitions

Instacart – Competitors

Instacart – Challenges Faced

Instacart – Future Plans

Instacart – FAQs

What does Instacart do?

Who founded Instacart?

What companies do Instacart compete with?

How does Instacart make money?

Vieroots – Company Highlights

Vieroots – About and Mission

Vieroots – Product and USP

How Vieroots Product (EPLIMO) works?

Vieroots – Founders and Team

Vieroots – Industry and Target Market

Vieroots – Startup Idea

Vieroots – Startup Challenges and Strategies

Vieroots – Customer Acquisition and Startup Launch

Vieroots – Name Meaning and Logo

Vieroots – Business Model and Revenue Model

Vieroots – Growth and Marketing

Vieroots – Funding and Valuation

Vieroots – Advisors and Mentors

Vieroots – Acquisition

Vieroots – Recognition and Achievement

Vieroots – Future Plans

Vieroots – FAQs

Who are the founders of Vieroots?

What is EPLIMO?

How much is Vieroots Valuation?

What does Vieroots name mean?

What is Vieroots USP?

What is genetic and metabolic profiles?

CustomerGlu Highlights

About CustomerGlu

CustomerGlu – Founders & Team

The Idea Behind Starting CustomerGlu

CustomerGlu – Name & Logo

CustomerGlu – Revenue Model

CustomerGlu – Funding & Investors

CustomerGlu – Challenges

CustomerGlu – Advisors & Mentors

CustomerGlu – Awards & Recognitions

CustomerGlu – Growth

CustomerGlu – FAQs

What is CustomerGlu?

Who is the founder of CustomerGlu?

What does CustomerGlu do?

Khetigaadi – Company Highlights

About Khetigaadi and How it Works

Khetigaadi – Market and industry details

Founders of Khetigaadi

How was Khetigaadi Started

Khetigaadi – Startup Launch

Khetigaadi – Name and Logo

Khetigaadi – Revenue Model

Khetigaadi – User Acquisitions

Khetigaadi – Startup Challenges

Khetigaadi – Competitors

Khetigaadi – Advisors and Mentors

Khetigaadi – Future Plans

Khetigaadi – FAQs

What is Khetigaadi?

When was Khetigaadi founded?

What sector does Khetigaadi operate in?

Univariety – Company Highlights

Univariety – About

Univariety – Founder And Team

Univariety – Tagline And Logo